by Chris Shiflett
In each episode Chris Shiflett sits down with a legendary guitarist and aims to answer a singular question: “How did you do that?” Each guitarist will give rare insight into the art of the guitar solo and what makes a great one so memorable.
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🇺🇲
Publishing Since
5/31/2023
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April 24, 2025
The Cars’ self-titled 1978 debut record changed the world of power pop forever. Guitarist and co-vocalist Ric Ocasek penned all the tunes, but lead guitarist Elliott Easton transformed them with his tasteful 6-string stylings. This time on Shred With Shifty, Easton sits down with Chris Shiflett to show him how to play the solo from “My Best Friend’s Girl.” Born in Brooklyn before winding up in Long Island, Easton washed dishes to save up for his first 1971 Fender Telecaster, and after high school he studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he picked up key theory and technique that he still holds dear. Reared on country and rockabilly players like Roy Buchanan, Jesse Ed Davis, Gram Parsons, James Burton, and Roy Nichols, Easton brought a slick twang to Ocasek’s new-wave gems. Easton tells Shifty how the band came to work with producer Roy Thomas Baker in London, while crashing at a label-provided mansion nearby and driving a loaned Jaguar and Land Rover to the sessions. Easton’s celebrated leads didn’t take long to come together. “On my mother’s memory, I did all my guitar parts in a day and a half,” he says. All he had with him was a 1978 or ’77 Telecaster with a Bartolini Firebird-style mini humbucker in it, a red Les Paul, a Martin acoustic, and two effects: the brand-new Boss CE-1 and a Morley EVO-1 Echo Volume pedal. His amp of choice in those days? An Ampeg VT-22 or VT-40. After running down his giddy-up guitar parts from “Best Friend’s Girl,” Easton talks about which modern players impress him, why he doesn’t consider himself a shredder, and the experience of working with Mutt Lange: “I spent as much time tuning with him as playing!” If you’re able to help, here are some charities aimed at assisting musicians affected by the fires in L.A: https://guitarcenterfoundation.org https://www.cciarts.org/relief.html https://www.musiciansfoundation.org https://fireaidla.org https://www.musicares.org https://www.sweetrelief.org Full Video Episodes: http://volume.com/shifty Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1690423642 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4B8BSR0l78qwUKJ5gOGIWb iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shred-with-shifty-116270551/ Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shred-with-shifty/PC:1001071314 Follow Chris Shiflett: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisshiflettmusic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shifty71 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chris.shiflett Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisshiflett71 Website: http://www.chrisshiflettmusic.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tv5SsSRqR7uLtpKZgcRrg?si=26kWS1v2RYaE4sS7KnHpag Producer: Jason Shadrick Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis Engineering support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion Video Editor: Addison Sauvan Graphic Design: Megan Pralle Special thanks to Jon Romeo, Michelle Yoon, Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.
April 10, 2025
The Georgia-born, Nashville-based roots-rock outfit Larkin Poe have had a busy year. Last summer, they toured across the U.S. supporting Slash, and released their seventh studio album, Bloom, on January 22. With a bit of downtime back in Nashville, co-shredders-in-chief Megan and Rebecca Lovell joined Shred With Shifty to deconstruct their face-melting leads on “Summertime Sunset,” off of their 2022 record Blood Harmony. The Lovells grew up reading sheet music and learning violin via the Suzuki method—there was little room for going off the beaten path until they fell in love with Jerry Douglas’ dobro playing on Alison Krauss records. Rebecca took up the mandolin, while Megan went for the dobro and the slide side of things. It took a while for them to get comfortable turning up from their bluegrass roots, but eventually they built Larkin Poe’s amplified, blues-rock sound. First up, Rebecca, playing a pristine ’60s SG, shows how she put together her stinging, fuzzy solo by “hunting and pecking out” melodies in her mind, building up the chops to follow her intuition. Then Megan, playing a Rickenbacker-inspired lap steel of her own design through a Rodenberg TB Drive, details her dizzyingly fast slide acrobatics, and her particular “rake” technique that she copped from Jerry Douglas and Derek Trucks. Tune in to hear them talk about how to sustain family relationships while going professional, keeping music community-minded, and whether or not they’ll go back to bluegrass. If you’re able to help, here are some charities aimed at assisting musicians affected by the fires in L.A: https://guitarcenterfoundation.org https://www.cciarts.org/relief.html https://www.musiciansfoundation.org https://fireaidla.org https://www.musicares.org https://www.sweetrelief.org Full Video Episodes: http://volume.com/shifty Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1690423642 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4B8BSR0l78qwUKJ5gOGIWb iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shred-with-shifty-116270551/ Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shred-with-shifty/PC:1001071314 Follow Chris Shiflett: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisshiflettmusic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shifty71 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chris.shiflett Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisshiflett71 Website: http://www.chrisshiflettmusic.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tv5SsSRqR7uLtpKZgcRrg?si=26kWS1v2RYaE4sS7KnHpag Producer: Jason Shadrick Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis Engineering support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion Video Editor: Addison Sauvan Graphic Design: Megan Pralle Special thanks to Jon Romeo, Michelle Yoon, Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.
April 10, 2025
The Georgia-born, Nashville-based roots-rock outfit Larkin Poe have had a busy year. Last summer, they toured across the U.S. supporting Slash, and released their seventh studio album, Bloom, on January 22. With a bit of downtime back in Nashville, co-shredders-in-chief Megan and Rebecca Lovell joined Shred With Shifty to deconstruct their face-melting leads on “Summertime Sunset,” off of their 2022 record Blood Harmony. The Lovells grew up reading sheet music and learning violin via the Suzuki method—there was little room for going off the beaten path until they fell in love with Jerry Douglas’ dobro playing on Alison Krauss records. Rebecca took up the mandolin, while Megan went for the dobro and the slide side of things. It took a while for them to get comfortable turning up from their bluegrass roots, but eventually they built Larkin Poe’s amplified, blues-rock sound. First up, Rebecca, playing a pristine ’60s SG, shows how she put together her stinging, fuzzy solo by “hunting and pecking out” melodies in her mind, building up the chops to follow her intuition. Then Megan, playing a Rickenbacker-inspired lap steel of her own design through a Rodenberg TB Drive, details her dizzyingly fast slide acrobatics, and her particular “rake” technique that she copped from Jerry Douglas and Derek Trucks. Tune in to hear them talk about how to sustain family relationships while going professional, keeping music community-minded, and whether or not they’ll go back to bluegrass. If you’re able to help, here are some charities aimed at assisting musicians affected by the fires in L.A: https://guitarcenterfoundation.org https://www.cciarts.org/relief.html https://www.musiciansfoundation.org https://fireaidla.org https://www.musicares.org https://www.sweetrelief.org Full Video Episodes: http://volume.com/shifty Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1690423642 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4B8BSR0l78qwUKJ5gOGIWb iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shred-with-shifty-116270551/ Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shred-with-shifty/PC:1001071314 Follow Chris Shiflett: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisshiflettmusic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shifty71 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chris.shiflett Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisshiflett71 Website: http://www.chrisshiflettmusic.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tv5SsSRqR7uLtpKZgcRrg?si=26kWS1v2RYaE4sS7KnHpag Producer: Jason Shadrick Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis Engineering support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion Video Editor: Addison Sauvan Graphic Design: Megan Pralle Special thanks to Jon Romeo, Michelle Yoon, Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.
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